Columns » Trend Spotting »

The Real Meaning of “High End”

July 30, 2012 | By
The Real Meaning of “High End”

There was a time when the world was simple. Ampex made video tape recorders, Pye made cameras, and the western world had manufacturing industries. Even in the modern world, where we’re more likely to be using specialist software running on commodity hardware, there are go-to names for the big stuff: Digidesign for audio editing... »

Grass Roots Marketing for Indie Films

December 13, 2009 | By
Grass Roots Marketing for Indie Films

The indie film business is a tumultuous, often unpredictable world, where survival is always a tenuous proposition. You can have a low-budget movie like Paranormal Experience that comes out of nowhere, (with almost no budget), and takes the world by storm, but more often than not, a single film can easily bankrupt an indie... »

This Is It—The Film That Almost Never-Never Was

November 18, 2009 | By
<em>This Is It</em>—The Film That Almost Never-Never Was

The back-story to the highly publicized Michael Jackson concert film, This Is It, is almost as interesting as its enigmatic foreground entertainer. What they had planned to do was a series of concerts with a 90-foot LED screen projecting stereoscopic music videos and vignettes behind the stage, and at times, Jackson would even interact... »

Digital Features in Running for Cinematography Oscar

February 8, 2009 | By

The nomination of films like The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Slumdog Millionaire in the best cinematography category marks a bit of watershed for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences— both films were shot largely digitally. The former was shot predominantly with Thomson’s Viper Filmstream cameras, (as well as a few... »

Academy Honors Techies

January 11, 2009 | By

As the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences gathers to honor the top films in the craft categories, there’s also a moment set aside to honor scientific and technical achievements, with a series of plaques and certificates, as well as a medallion and an Oscar statuette. The Scientific and Technical Awards will be... »

A Tale of Two Cameras

November 8, 2008 | By

RED Ramps Up RED recently unveiled plans for its upcoming Epic and Scarlet camera lines, along with a product roadmap leading up to 2010. Scarlet and Epic will form the basis of RED’s new DSMC (Digital Stills and Motion Camera) systems. With these lines of cameras, the company is going after both the high-end... »

Manufacturers Line Up for RED SDK

October 8, 2008 | By

Since August, when RED announced the release of a Software Developer Kit (SDK) that would enable other manufacturers to work with the company’s Redcode RAW (.R3D) file format natively, there has been a rush of postproduction equipment manufacturers signing up for the SDK—namely those with editing and grading systems. It’s not surprising, since there... »

New ACTA Treaty to Address International Piracy

June 8, 2008 | By

As the growing piracy of content continues to threaten entertainment revenues worldwide, affecting both the below-the-line and the above-the-line communities, the industry is taking aggressive measures to reduce the problem while trying to preserve individuals’ civil liberties. Piracy has been a thorn in Hollywood’s side since the introduction of consumer camcorders and VCRs. But... »

NAB’s Hot Items: Mobile Video, 3D and 4K

April 8, 2008 | By

As we approach NAB This year, the industry faces different kinds of challenges. The effects of the prolonged writers’ strike, the threat of an upcoming actors’ strike, combined with general economic malaise are taking their toll. But as they say in show business, the show must go on. And it’s not all bad news.... »

Thomson Ships Infinity

March 8, 2008 | By

Thomson announced that it has shipped its first Grass Valley Infinity Digital Media Camcorders, almost two-and- a-half years after the company first unveiled the camera at IBC 2005. The camera, originally scheduled to ship in early 2006, has seen a number of engineering delays, but Las Vegas-based NBC affiliate KVBC recently took delivery of... »

Follow us on Twitter